Police chief hits back at car hire claims

The police chief in the middle of the car rental allegations has launched a stinging attack on the Liberal Democrats over criticism of the amount of money spent on hire cars by the force.

Spokesman for home affairs for the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne, revealed figures that showed more than £132 million had been spent on car rental in the past five years.

Police chief Meredydd Hughes claimed it was more cost effective to rent vehicles.

He accused the Liberal Democrats of wasting everyone’s time trying to gain publicity for the party.

Hughes said it was a story that wasn’t a story.

He continued by saying the South Yorkshire Police was proud of the manner it used the public’s resources.

The MP’s findings, which resulted from freedom of information requests to all the UK’s police forces, found that the Metropolitan Police force spent the most on car hire, over £48 million, while the South Yorkshire Police were found to have spent a little over £2.5 million.

Hughes argued that hire cars had been used to transport officers investigating major incidents such as murder inquiries, terrorist incidents and other major crimes.

He said that specialist cars were often hired in bad weather, especially in situations such as flooding.

He claimed it was more effective in terms of cost than owning the cars on a full time basis.

The comments come following Mr Huhne describing the amounts as unnecessarily lavish, at a time when police budgets were under strong pressure.

He continued by saying that hiring cars at appropriate times could help save money for the forces, but if they were being hired while polices cars are not in use, its simply a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Mr Hughes said in a statement that the Liberal Democrats would do better to come and ask the South Yorkshire Police how money was being spent rather than wasting everyone else’s time trying to get publicity for the party.